My Mum in Canada is on a MacBook/Wifi and I'm on my iP4 in Japan. Is her iChat/AOL username supposed to be in my iPhone Address Book first? I added her AOL/iChat email address to my iPhone then tried a Facetime call with that AOL email address but no go. In the iPhone Address Book there is a field for AIM username as well. I added her AIM username but I can't click on the username to start a call.

There's no actual iPhone app called iChat is there? It's just a built-in feature of Facetime right?

My Mum in Canada is on a MacBook/Wifi and I'm on my iP4 in Japan. Is her iChat username supposed to be on my iPhone somewhere first? I added her AOL/iChat username then tried a Facetime call but no go.

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You can't...FaceTime and iChat do not work together (yet?). Here's what you need to do:

- On your iPhone, you're all set already.

- On her Mac, she needs 10.6.4 at least (Snow Leopard) and the FaceTime for Mac beta. She signs on to that with her Apple ID (or she has to make one).

- To initiate a call to her, you find her contact on your phone, tap FaceTime, and pick her email address instead of her phone number.

- For her to initiate a call to you, she just needs to have you in her Mac's Address Book, find you under 'Contacts' on the FaceTime application, and then select your phone number if it prompts her.

- On her Mac, she needs 10.6.4 at least (Snow Leopard) and the FaceTime for Mac beta. She signs on to that with her Apple ID (or she has to make one).

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Damn...There's no way she can upgrade without me there. She's still on 10.5 I believe. We'll have to wait until I go back home and install 10.6.5 for her. Btw, does she need an APPLE ID or can it be an iChat/AOL username?

Does she need an APPLE ID or can it be an iChat/AOL username? Do I enter only the APPLE ID into the AIM field in the iPhone Address Book or do I enter her full APPLE ID "xxx@emailaddress" into the email field in the Address Book?

EDIT: Nevermind. I realized that the Address Book AIM field has nothing to do with iChat/Facetime. It's just an extra contact field. For iChat/Facetime it's all about the email field.

Interesting...So I got Facetime working between my iPhone and MacBook.

Weird thing is even though I've been using my Apple ID with a Hotmail address for years, FaceTime on the MacBook wasn't able to confirm my Hotmail email address during the set up. When I created a temporary Apple ID using a Gmail address it was able to confirm it. I wonder if this is a Beta issue.

Btw, when I make a FaceTime call from the iP4 what Facetime account is it using? Is it just using a native fixed ID that belongs to the iP4 therefore isn't an Apple ID?

Facetime is (right now) only for the Mac 10.6 and the iPhone 4. It is Facetime to Facetime. It will not go from Facetime to AOL instant messenger.
If she has a Mac and needs to upgrade the OS, the upgrade is VERY VERY easy. Yes, even your mother can do it. Or just take it in to an Apple store if possible. They can do it while she waits.

Then she would have to download and install the Facetime Beta. Once she opens this, she will need to use her Apple ID as her name. Then she can Facetime call your iPhone 4 number. Or you can Facetime call her Apple ID.

Facetime is (right now) only for the Mac 10.6 and the iPhone 4. It is Facetime to Facetime. It will not go from Facetime to AOL instant messenger.
If she has a Mac and needs to upgrade the OS, the upgrade is VERY VERY easy. Yes, even your mother can do it. Or just take it in to an Apple store if possible. They can do it while she waits.

Then she would have to download and install the Facetime Beta. Once she opens this, she will need to use her Apple ID as her name. Then she can Facetime call your iPhone 4 number. Or you can Facetime call her Apple ID.

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I will second that - one of my coworkers wanted to FaceTime her boyfriend who lives 5 hours away - they both have Macs and iChat's AV capabilities did not like his network, but she was running 10.5...she's not very tech savvy, but she went to a Best Buy, picked up the 10.6 disc for $29, popped it in and followed the directions. Your mom should be able to do that.

As for the FaceTime beta - it is also an easy install, but she may need to run Software Update first to have the latest 10.6.x update.

I think the biggest confusion is that FaceTime is not a chat framework that works with another protocol, unlike iChat AV, where you can piggyback iChat's AV capabilities atop Jabber/Google Talk, AIM, Bonjour, etc. It is an open protocol, so it could eventually work with non-Apple products, but right now it only works with Apple IDs and phone numbers.

If you were to be logged into FaceTime on two Macs, both would ring when someone called. The same goes for iPod touches and Macs. Unfortunately, right now, on the iPhone 4, the only way to be logged in is with your phone number, but it works seamlessly with anyone on a Mac, iPhone 4, or iPod touch 4. Also, keep in mind that you enter the information in the iOS and Mac Address Books with no special method - email addresses (aka Apple IDs) go into the email fields and phone numbers go into the phone number fields. In many ways, Apple is hoping that FaceTime kills the need for AV usage with AIM (and AIM in general).

Facetime is (right now) only for the Mac 10.6 and the iPhone 4. It is Facetime to Facetime. It will not go from Facetime to AOL instant messenger.
If she has a Mac and needs to upgrade the OS, the upgrade is VERY VERY easy. Yes, even your mother can do it. Or just take it in to an Apple store if possible. They can do it while she waits.

Then she would have to download and install the Facetime Beta. Once she opens this, she will need to use her Apple ID as her name. Then she can Facetime call your iPhone 4 number. Or you can Facetime call her Apple ID.

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I did exactly this recently. Wanted to have the ability to use FaceTime on my Mac, so I upgraded to 10.6 for $29. It was a pretty seamless transition from 10.5. I did have to update some of the software I use, but it was straightforward. And downloading the FaceTime beta was easy.
And FaceTime from Mac to iPhone and vice versa works flawlessly!
The only issue for me is that I was only able to upgrade my desktop to 10.6. My laptop has the old G-4 chip and it's outside of the 10.6 specs. Oh well! Maybe that's a sign that it will soon be time for a new laptop!

The only issue for me is that I was only able to upgrade my desktop to 10.6. My laptop has the old G-4 chip and it's outside of the 10.6 specs. Oh well! Maybe that's a sign that it will soon be time for a new laptop!

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My dad lives a couple of hours away and I'd love to have this capability with him (even though we usually just have our once-a-week-or-so phone calls), but he's still using a Power Mac G4 (heavily upgraded, and pretty sufficient for everything he does except the random Flash-based content). I actually may push him towards an iPad instead of another Mac, especially if future versions include FaceTime. He can still use the G4 with all of its hard drives for music, media, and the occasional document, but for everything else, I think the iPad would be great.

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